The term registration carriers is understood to mean sound and/or picture carriers, data carriers and the like, for example, so-called compact discs, as well as carriers which can be processed at a later stage for storing sound, pictures or other data to be registered thereon. It will thereby be apparent to those skilled in the art that the registration carriers emanating from the installation according to the invention must generally undergo further processing operations in order to complete the registration carriers, such as, for example, the application of a metal film and the like.
With the installations of the above kind that have been usual so far at least one molding plate, that is the molding plate which exhibits a certain relief corresponding with the data to be recorded on the carrier, must be exchanged when switching over from the production of one registration carrier to another registration carrier. The other molding plate is usually a substantially smooth molding plate, which can generally remain in its place. With the installations that have been usual so far the molding plate to be exchanged must also be removed from its holder and be exchanged for another molding plate in that case. Generally this is a time-consuming activity, which requires a comparatively lengthy standstill of the machine and entails a loss of production. This loss of production becomes even larger because generally some time elapses before the holder to be exchanged has cooled down enough to be removed and the newly provided holder and the molding plate have reached the appropriate operating temperature.
From U.S. Pat. No. 2,433,654, an injection molding device is known that is provided with an upper stationary mold half and with two movable mold halves disposed at a lower level, which can alternately be positioned under the stationary mold halves and then be moved towards the stationary mold halves so as to form a closed mold cavity, into which casting material can be injected. After injection molding, the lower mold half is moved downward again, together with the product formed, and moved sideways so as to be able to remove said object from the lower mold half. In the meantime, the other one of the two lower mold halves is moved to a position under the stationary mold so as to form a next product in conjunction with said stationary mold half. No mention is made in the '654 patent of means for moving the lower mold halves.
German Patent No. 1112645 describes a device which is provided with a movable slide that supports two molds. The molds can be reciprocated by means of the slide between two devices for heating the molds and a cooling station, in which a foil is pressed onto the previously heated mold present in the cooling station so as to form a registration carrier. When a mold needs to be exchanged, it will be necessary to put the device out of operation.